Stephen McGinley

Serving as a Peace Corps Fellow in Duquesne's Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy took Steve McGinley from his Peace Corps service in Tonga to a prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship and from there to service as a Congressional Liaison, first for the NASA and then for the VA. "I believe the Policy Center and being a Fellow prepared me for a career with the Federal Government, first as a Presidential Management Fellow, and later as a Congressional Liaison," Steve affirmed.

As a Peace Corps Fellow in Pittsburgh Steve worked for the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, where he tracked and helped promote foreign direct investment in southwestern Pennsylvania, and later for the Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh, where he was involved with conflict resolution with Catholic and Protestant youth in Northern Ireland.

After completing his Presidential Management Fellowship with the Navy Steve worked as a Congressional Liaison Officer for NASA. (Steve is second from the left in this photograph of a group of NASA officials with Robonaut.)

From there Steve moved to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he represented the interests of the department to members of Congress and its oversight committee staff. "I coordinate Congressional hearings at which senior VA officials appear. This requires intense, close, and skillful collaboration with Congressional staff, VA program offices and its senior management—all in a very fluid environment, under an extremely compressed schedule. I also must keep on top of other projects, Congressional inquiries, requests by the Congress for briefings, and other demands. This post requires excellent communication, problem-solving and teamwork skills, as well as consistent good judgment and discretion."

In summer 2012 Steve became Voice of America's Congressional Liaison, with responsibility to develop and implement external communications plans, and coordinate briefings, testimonies and reports to Congress. He also helps prepare speeches and coordinates responses to requests for information from Congress and other parts of the federal government.

Steve, his Tongan wife Ofa, and their daughters Fiona and Cecilia now make their home in Alexandria, Virginia.